Queen

"And this Song of the Vine,
This greeting of mine,
The winds and the birds shall deliver
To the Queen of the West,
In her garlands dressed,
On the banks of the Beautiful River."
- H. Longfellow

Here are two pictures (one of the fire station across the street) from the coffee house where I write today in Hyde Park Square. When I lived in Cincinnati, this was one of my favorite places to come and work. Many of the neighborhoods have these small fire stations nestled into the community. And Hyde Park is considered upscale, so I also get to watch the beautiful people of Cinti. A great time was had here, but it is time to move on.

I-71 lies ahead and the next leg of the trip takes me to Cleveland. I do not find the heat too bad here; I find the air conditioning inside to be much less tolerable than the temps outside. Not being used to A/C, I find the temperature swings from inside to outside to be quite dramatic. I miss Bellingham ("Oh, why was I tempted to roam?") and the connection to the outside world that open windows bring. (And I thought the days of wearing fleece inside covered with down comforters were behind me for the year.) Enough complaining.

My sustenance for the trip north will be some donuts from Busken. Mmmm.